PROVIDENCE, R.I. — the U.S. Department of Justice said its investigation of hiring at the Corrections Department centers around job applicant tests that do not measure the “knowledge, skills and abilities” needed to work as a correctional officer.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — In a letter sent last month to the state Department of Corrections, the U.S. Department of Justice said its investigation of hiring at the Corrections Department centers around job applicant tests that do not measure the “knowledge, skills and abilities” needed to work as a correctional officer.

Those tests have screened out roughly 33 percent of white applicants since 2000, while screening out far more minority candidates: about 59 percent of African-American applicants and 67 percent of Hispanic applicants, according to the letter, provided to The Providence Journal this week in response to an open records request.

“An employer, of course, is not prohibited from using selection procedures that cause adverse impact if it can demonstrate that the procedures validly predict an applicant’s ability to perform the job,” the Justice Department says in the letter, dated Nov. 26. “Where, however, an employer cannot make this showing, it has unnecessarily limited its applicant pool without gaining the ability to distinguish between qualified and unqualified candidates.”

And that appears to be the conclusion the Justice Department has reached concerning Corrections Department hiring. “Here,” the letter states, “the information presented to us has not demonstrated that Rhode Island’s pass/fail use” of written and video exams “meets the necessary standards.”

The letter says the Justice Department intends to file “suit against the State of Rhode Island and the Rhode Island Department of Corrections” by Dec. 30. But it also gives the state the option of “settlement negotiations,” as long as the negotiations result in a “publicly filed consent decree that would be subject to federal court supervision.” Any negotiations would also have to result in the use of new applicant screening methods and provide “make-whole relief” to “African-American and Hispanic applicants who were harmed by Rhode Island’s” examinations, according to the four-page letter.

Corrections Department spokeswoman Susan Lamkins said the department has “initiated discussions” with the Department of Justice and are “planning to meet so that we can better understand how they came to their determination.” Asked if the settlement conditions would be acceptable, she said it is “premature for us to discuss the details of any possible settlement.”

Department Director A.T. Wall has defended the agency’s hiring efforts, saying it has “every reason to want to have a diverse work force.”

Among those reasons: maintaining fairness and credibility, as well as the fact that “a disproportionate share of our inmate population comes from minority groups.” Having minority correctional officers helps the state prison system to understand cultural issues and “certain behaviors,” and also helps in providing role models, Wall said in a recent interview.

“We work very hard at it,” he said.

Rhode Island’s Corrections Department has about 911 correctional officers, of which 175, or 19.2 percent, are minorities, according to Lamkins. Of 105 corrections officers hired in the latest round, 29, or 27.6 percent, are minorities, and 2 refused to indicate their race or ethnicity, she said.

Asked whether the Corrections Department agrees that the tests have failed to measure the needed skills, Lamkins said the department is “seeking to understand the methodology” of the Justice Department and “explain our methodology to them. Until we do so we are not in a position to draw any conclusions.”

The Corrections Department has put its latest round of hiring on hold in the wake of the federal inquiry.